British Library to preserve nation’s entire Internet history

Library archives internet: Lucie Burgess, head of content strategy at the British Library, will help archive every .uk website. IMAGE

AP Photo: Lefteris Pitarakis. Library archives internet: Lucie Burgess, head of content strategy at the British Library, will help archive every .uk website. IMAGE

4/4/13 By Associated Press

The British Library aims to record every .uk blog, e-book and website to preserve the nation's "digital history."

LONDON — Capturing the unruly, ever-changing Internet is like trying to pin down a raging river.

But the British Library is going to try.

AP Photo: Lefteris Pitarakis. Library archives internet: The British Library will try to record every .uk website, e-book and blog. IMAGE

For centuries the library has kept a copy of every book, pamphlet, magazine and newspaper published in Britain. Now it will also record every British website, e-book, online newsletter and blog, in a bid to preserve the nation's "digital memory."

Starting this weekend, the library will begin saving all sites ending with the suffix .uk — an initial hoard of 4.8 million sites containing 1 billion web pages.

Lucie Burgess, the library's head of content strategy, says the material will be publicly available to by the end of this year. And the library promises to keep up with technological changes so it is preserved for future generations.

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